History Commons^™

German Imperialism And Applied Orientalism: German Encounters With The Ottoman Empire, 1850-1918, Matthew David Penix

Dissertations

Edward Said’s influential treatise on culture and imperialism, Orientalism, specifically called out German scholars of the Islamic “Orient” as being different. The lack of a formal German empire in Muslim lands seemed to preclude a culture of Orientalism. This dissertation examines the lived experience of Germans who traveled and worked in the Ottoman Empire from 1850-1918. As German interests sought their “place in the sun” during the decades before 1914, the Ottoman Empire became a major field of business investment, military-to-military contact, and missionary endeavor for Germans acting at the behest of both state and private interests. Their experiences formed …

Karczma/Taberna: Public Houses In Cracow During The Jagiellonian Dynasty, Peter Paul Dobek

Dissertations

Public houses—inns, taverns, and alehouses—during the Jagiellonian Dynasty (1385-1572) in the city of Cracow and its immediate surroundings functioned as important establishments in the everyday life of the city. While the city continued to grow and prosper as the preferred residence of the dynasty, inhabitants, travelers, and migrants increasingly relied on the public houses of the conurbation to meet their many needs and desires. Although scholars have studied these establishments throughout Europe during various epochs, they have neglected to analyze the public houses in Cracow during the Jagiellonian era.

This study provides a comprehensive examination of a multitude of sources, …

A Legion Of Legacy: Tyrolean Militarism, Catholicism, And The Heimwehr Movement, Jason Engle

Dissertations

This study of the origins of the Heimwehr (Home Guard) movement offers insight into the conditions under which such groups gained their following. As such, its story is a valuable one that shows a society groping with the problem of a complex, multi-faceted identity that was, at the same time, wracked with substantial economic privation and politically polarized. The paramilitary Heimwehr movement that began in 1920 was the creation of Austria’s conservative provincial governments. It was intended to preserve the existing social and political order—that of the hegemonic social groups of the Habsburg Monarchy—against the growing threat of Marxist revolution, …

Deadly Hostility: Feud, Violence, And Power In Early Anglo-Saxon England, David Ditucci

Dissertations

This dissertation examines the existence and political relevance of feud in Anglo-Saxon England from the fifth century migration to the opening of the Viking Age in 793. The central argument is that feud was a method that Anglo-Saxons used to understand and settle conflict, and that it was a tool kings used to enhance their power. The first part of this study examines the use of fæhð in Old English documents, including laws and Beowulf, to demonstrate that fæhð referred to feuds between parties marked by reciprocal acts of retaliation. This assertion is in opposition to Guy Halsall’s argument that …

"An Alphabet Of Soldiers”: Jake Heggie’S Farewell, Auschwitz, Lori Jo Guy

Dissertations

For the past 18 years, the non-profit organization Music Of Remembrance has worked to remember the Holocaust through concerts, education events, and by recording and commissioning new works. One such work, entitled Farewell, Auschwitz, premiered in May of 2013.

Farewell, Auschwitz is a unique composition for several reasons. One reason is that the poetry for the songs was adapted from lyrics written by Krystyna Żywulska, a Polish Jew, imprisoned at the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp. In the camp, she began creating poetry and songs in reaction to the horror that surrounded her. Her poetry is a commentary on the daily …

Remains To Be Seen: Execution And Embodiment In The Early English Atlantic World, Erin M. Feichtinger

Dissertations

This dissertation explores the development of capitalism in the early English Atlantic World (1580 - 1752) and the manipulation of the legal system to criminalize the laboring body in order to more fully exploit the productive output of labor.

Power Relations At The Cistercian Abbey Of St. Mary At Rushen: With Special Interest In Connections At Furness And Influence Through The Kingdom Of The Isles, Valerie Dawn Hampton

Dissertations

The Isle of Man is an island situated in the Irish Sea at the geographical center of the British Isles. During the Middle Ages, the Isle of Man, which was only two hundred and twenty-two square miles, surprisingly was the seat of an important Viking kingdom that controlled and patrolled the Irish Sea and Hebrides. Rushen Abbey, a Savigniac monastery, was founded in 1134 near Ballasalla, in the parish of Malew, in the southeast of the Isle of Man.

This dissertation focuses on the influence that Rushen Abbey exerted on the ecclesiastical institutions and secular personas within the area of …

“A Difficult And Dangerous Thing”: Religious Reform In Late Medieval Ulm, 1434-1532, Jamie Mccandless

Dissertations

This work examines the relationship between mendicant Orders and the city council of Ulm in the period of religious reforms from the fifteenth century to the early Reformation in the sixteenth century. It challenges the view that the Observant reforms were unsuccessful because they failed to reform substantially their Orders, that their reforms were too conservative to respond to current trends in religion, or that they failed to prevent, in some way, the development of the antifratneral or anticlerical policies of the Reformation. This work also considers that nature of the Observant reforms themselves, the problems that religious Order’s had …

Air Too Pure For Slavery And The Rights Of British Liberty: The Black Experience In London, 1772-1883, Tony A. Frazier

Dissertations

This dissertation presents abundant evidence that people of African descent were very present and visible in eighteenth-century London society. In the eighteenth century, London was one of the largest cities in the world with a population that reached almost 700,000 in 1750 and over a million in 1800. In addition, Great Britain was the leading slave trafficking nation in the world. Therefore, it was no surprise that the debate concerning black freedom and liberty was center stage in one of the most important regions in Europe and the Atlantic world. This question, much like the development of slavery in eighteenth-century …

La Mujer Española Escritora De Su Propia Experiencia Carcelaria, Berta Carrasco De Miguel

Dissertations

This dissertation examines the role of women prisoners during the Spanish Civil war (1936-1939) and the Francoist regime (1939-1975) as represented in different literary genres such as the testimonio (testimonial narrative), autobiography and the fiction novel. In the first chapter, I analyze the concept of womanhood created by Francisco Franco 's regime through the person of Pilar Primo de Rivera. In the second chapter I study three texts written right after the dictatorship: Desde la noche y la niebla by Juana Doña, Las cárceles de Soledad Real compiled by Consuelo García and En el infierno: ser mujer en las cárceles …

The Gendered Plight Of Terror: Annexation And Exile In Latvia 1940-1950, Irene Elksnis Geisler

Dissertations

Drawing on methodologies employed in Oral History and Memory scholarship, this qualitative study utilizes the lens of gender to explore narratives contesting time-honored notions of violence, war and peace. It examines Latvia's history through the voices of women from 1940 to 1950. This project seeks to interpret Latvian history based on the experiences of those who survived invasion, exile and deportation. It positions the narratives of women at the center rather than at the margins of historical analysis. The project analyzes themes central to women's social roles in order to attain a more complete understanding of war, exile and people's …

Life And Local Administration On Fifteenth Century Genoese Chios, Brian Nathaniel Becker

Dissertations

This dissertation combines a comparative analysis of the colonial administrations of Genoese Chios (1346-1566) and Venetian Crete (1211-1669) with an examination of the internal dynamics of Chian society under Genoese rule. It asks how society functioned on Chios and what role the ruling Genoese Mahona, or association of ship owners involved in the conquest, played in its construction. This study demonstrates, on the one hand, how often a colonial administration lacking strong direction from its home state, as was the case with the Mahona, crossed various constructed boundaries to establish mixed relationships with other states and also the island's indigenous …

The Italian Emigration Of Modern Times: Relations Between Italy And The United States Concerning Emigration Policy, Diplomacy, And Anti-Immigrant Sentiment, 1870-1927, Patrizia Fama Stahle

Dissertations

In the late 1800s, the United States was the great destination of Italian emigrants. In North America, employers considered Italians industrious individuals, but held them in low esteem. Italian immigrants were seen as dangerous subversives, anarchists, cheap laborers who were always ready to accept jobs for lower wages. Indeed, numerous episodes of violence and even lynching of Italians occurred in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries in the United States. In most cases, the violence went unpunished by the local authorities. Such episodes of violence provoked a diplomatic controversy between Italy and the United States concerning treaty-guaranteed protection of …

A Land Fit For Heroes?: The Great War, Memory, Popular Culture, And Politics In Ireland Since 1914, Jason Robert Myers

Dissertations

Despite the fact that over 200,000 Irish men fought in the British Army during the First World War, Ireland's sizeable contribution to the war remained in the shadows of history for most of the twentieth century. This dissertation examines the cultural components of the memory of the Great War in Ireland and argues that, taken together, they constitute an alternative Irish national identity that threatened and challenged republican nationalism. These cultural components existed in the realm of vernacular memory, which lay beyond the reach of the Irish government. By examining commemorative rituals, war memorials, and popular culture, this project breathes …

The Trauma Of Stalinism Narrated In Varlam T. Shalamov's Kolymskie Rasskazy : Missiological Implications For Contemporary Russia, Yuri N. Drumi

Dissertations

Stalinism and the punitive system of the Gulag left an indelible stamp on the entire social matrix of Russia. Because of the multidimensional and multigenerational nature of the trauma of Stalinism, Russian society retains the label of a traumatized culture. This dissertation explores the significance of this phenomenon for contemporary Christian mission in Russia.

The narratives of Varlam T. Shalamov's Kolymskie rasskazy provided an empirical (based on sensory evidence) inquiry into the reality of enormous sufferings experienced by the inmates of the Kolyma Gulag. Holy Scripture, on the other hand, provided the theological (faith-based) inquiry into the causes and implications …

William Morris And The Society For The Protection Of Ancient Buildings: Nineteenth And Twentieth Century Historic Preservation In Europe, Andrea Yount

Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Patriarch Nikon's Image In Russian History And Culture, Kevin Kain

Dissertations

This dissertation investigates representations of Nikon, Patriarch of Moscow and all Russia (1652-1666). I contend that Nikon's resonance in Russian national life remains largely unrecognized because traditional histories--based entirely on written sources and limited to Nikon's tenure as Patriarch--fail to reveal his broader significance in Russian artistic, political and religious culture by omitting analysis of art and material culture. This dissertation advances the study of Patriarch Nikon by assessing his image in Russian history and culture from the mid-seventeenth century forward. I demonstrate that contrary to his overwhelmingly negative image in standard histories, the Patriarch held a central place in …

The Tragedy Of The Rivers: Building Authority Over The British Water Environment, Kevin B. Vichcales

Dissertations

"The Tragedy of the Rivers: Building Authority over the British Water Environment" examines the problem of rivers as common public resources in modern Britain. Viewed historically, the enduring problem of environmental pollution control in Britain has been the establishment of regulating authority over aspects of nature that are regarded simultaneously as economic resources, public utilities, and public amenities. Legislators, subject to pressure from industrial polluters, political parties, and advocates for environmental quality, sought at different times to locate authority at local, regional, national and extra-national levels. Each effort failed to resolve the issue of authority over the environment, because administrative …

The Romans Commentaries Of William Of St. Thierry And Peter Abelard: A Theological And Methodological Comparison, Steven R. Cartwright

Dissertations

In 1140, William o f St. Thierry, a Cistercian monk and former Benedictine abbot, accused Peter Abelard, the well-known philosopher and theologian, of propagating grave errors concerning Christian doctrine in his theological teachings. William’s accusations resulted in Peter’s condemnation at the Council of Sens in 1140.

This study compares the commentaries on the Episode of St. Paul to the Romans written by William of St. Thierry and Peter Abelard in the mid-1130s, only a few years before William’s accusations. While this conflict has been much studied, no one has previously examined it via these commentaries, which are the only literary …

Making An Early Medieval Ethnie: The Case Of The Early Slavs (Sixth To Seventh Century A.D. ), Florin Curta

Dissertations

This study approaches the problem of the early Slavs from the perspective of current anthropological theories on ethnicity. The relationship between material culture and ethnicity is also examined, with particular emphasis on the notion of style. The historiography of the subject is vast and its survey shows why and how a particular approach to the history of the early Slavs was favored by linguistically minded historians and archaeologists. The historiography of the early Slavs is also the story of how academic discourse was used for the construction of national identity.

The study of the written sources indicates that the history …

The National German-American Alliance, 1901 -1918: Cultural Politics And Ethnicity In Peace And War, Charles Thomas Johnson

Dissertations

The purpose of this dissertation is to tell the story of the National German- American Alliance, an organization of middle to upper-middle class well-educated professionals formed in 1901 to promote and preserve aspects of German culture in the United States. Increasingly, however, it found itself drawn into controversial political and diplomatic issues in the rapid political, social and international change that marked the first two decades of the twentieth century.

The dissertation begins with a review of German-America from colonial times to 1899 and serves as a background for the founding of the Alliance within the context of the growth …

An Analysis Of The Utilization Of Power By Florence Nightingale 1856-1872, Louise C. Selanders

Dissertations

This historical analysis sought to determine the types of power utilized by Florence Nightingale while providing leadership to major reforms and how these power acts were implemented- The scope of the study was her productive post- Crimean years from 1856 through 1872. Events which were examined included the reform of the health of the British Army including the Royal Commission, the establishment of modem, secular nursing education and the establishment of public health standards in India during British colonization.

The power acts were examined relative to the constituents of power defined by Dahl (1957). The source of power contained subsets …

Gerry Fitt: Ulster Politician, Michael A. Murphy

Dissertations

No abstract provided.

John Whitgift And The Administrative Stabilization Of The Church Of England, 1583-1604, Barry Mccauley

Dissertations

No abstract provided.